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Updated: May 17, 2026
Paramyxoviruses for Tumor-targeted Immunomodulation: Design and Evaluation Ex Vivo
Published on: January 7, 2019
Recovery of live virus after storage at ambient temperature using ViveST™
Kelli L Barr1, Ali M Messenger, Benjamin D Anderson
1College of Public Health and Health Professions and The Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States. ateraxes@hotmail.com
Background:
A major impediment to performing virological field studies in developing nations is the lack of ultra-low freezers as well as the expense and difficulty of shipping frozen samples. A commercially available product, ViveST™, was developed to preserve nucleic acids at ambient temperature for use in specimen storage and transportation. However, its applications as a viral storage, transport and recovery device have not been evaluated.
Objective:
To examine the ability of ViveST to preserve live virus following storage at ambient temperature.
Study Design:
A panel of six viruses was stored at ambient temperature (~22°C) in ViveST with fetal bovine serum (FBS), or ViveST with minimal essential media (MEM) and compared with virus stored in universal transport media (M4RT), MEM, and FBS alone. Stored viruses included: human adenovirus (14p), dengue virus 2 (16608), echovirus 3 (Morrisey), human rhinovirus 15 (1734), Coxsackie virus B5 (Faulkner), and herpes simplex virus 1 (HF). After 7 days storage at ambient temperature, virus recovery was measured via titration using viral plaque assays or focus-forming unit assays.
Results:
Viral titer studies indicate that ViveST with either FBS or M4RT preserved/recovered 5 different viruses for 1 week at ambient temperature. MEM preserved 4 viruses while FBS and ViveST with MEM preserved 3 viruses each. Statistical analyses indicate that M4RT and ViveST with FBS preserved significantly more virus than the other treatments.
Conclusions:
These data suggest that ViveST with either FBS or M4RT may be useful in field specimen collection scenarios where ultra-cold storage is not available.
